Chapter 630 The Devil's Whisper
He didn't dwell on Oceanus's matter for too long; after all, in a sense, there was no point in focusing on it now.
His true body was not present, and his divine artifact was sealed within Asgard.
With only this clone here, Zeus found it difficult to accomplish anything.
Turning to leave, the God King continuously moved away from the boundary of the Chaos World, following the faint sensation he had felt earlier.
However, as he moved, almost visibly, Zeus's avatar began to thin and become transparent.
The divine power swirling around him also diminished, like a dam with its gates opened, its torrent unstoppable.
He frowned slightly, then relaxed.
The God King was not surprised by the current scene.
Given his identity, once he moved away from the embrace of the Chaos World's power, his strength would inevitably weaken at a rate far exceeding that of any other god.
This was the particularity of royal authority, and the inevitability of the God King.
Fortunately, he was merely an avatar at the moment, so there was no need to be overly concerned about these things.
Thus, Zeus paid it no mind, simply pressing forward.
Time slowly passed, and in the surrounding void, the presence belonging to Chaos grew increasingly faint.
The concept of 'existence' became scarcer, and the emptiness of 'non-existence' became more pronounced.
Looking back, the world had become an imperceptible speck of light, almost impossible to see its presence.
Only a mysterious connection, maintained in the ethereal, prevented him from getting lost in the void.
Fortunately, upon reaching this point, Zeus once again detected that peculiar movement.
His spirit invigorated, he subconsciously quickened his pace.
At a certain moment, when the existence of his avatar was nearing collapse, at the outermost edge of the Chaos power's radiation, the God King finally saw a color distinct from the void.
It was a tiny point, but upon closer inspection, its essence was actually an entire piece of shattered space.
A moment later, when Zeus arrived at the vicinity of that fragment, he carefully surveyed everything before him.
If nothing unexpected happened, this should be a corner of debris that had fallen from the edge of the world.
And compared to Asgard, its power was so weak.
If the former Asgard Divine Realm, after falling into the Chaos World, had its remaining creation power struggle for a considerable amount of time, only nearing dissipation when Zeus intruded.
Then this shattered fragment had almost lost its resistance before even entering the world, beginning to assimilate into the order and rules of Chaos.
Of course, 'almost' does not equal 'absolute', so standing outside the fragment, with his avatar in a state that seemed like it could be blown away by a mere breath, the God King could not perceive any movement within.
If he wanted to know what was inside, he would have to go in and see for himself.
However, facing this situation, Zeus couldn't help but hesitate.
A weak world fragment was nothing.
But how this fragment came to be was what truly made him wary.
Gazing into the deep void in the distance, that was a place that even the power of Chaos had not touched.
Perhaps the great power of creation had extended there in another way, but at least it had not cast its attention, anchoring the 'existence and non-existence' along that path.
...World fragments... Outer Gods... that prophetic dream... world ender...
...Not long ago, the mysterious loss of world power from Chaos... Lord of the Spirit Realm... the sudden surge of power in the entire world over the past few decades...
"Even with the impetus of this power, Tartarus underwent such a terrifying change, attempting to peer into the realm beyond greatness."
"And even after his attempt failed, thanks to that boundless source power and the increasingly expanding origin of Chaos."
"I didn't even feel him weaken for too long; in a short period, the Abyssal Demon God is about to recover from his injuries..."
His eyes flickered; at this moment, Zeus thought of many things.
It involved a world outside of Chaos, just like Asgard once was.
This certainly meant benefits, but it also carried enormous risks.
And for the God King, if he had already completed the unification of the current world, then exploring the outside world would be reasonable.
But since the internal affairs had not yet been sorted out, premature exploration of the outer domain seemed hardly prudent.
However...
"However, this is the last loophole in my plan."
"The risks within the world are more or less within my control."
"Even if the power of the Lord of the Spirit Realm exceeds my imagination, as long as the current world stands by my side, he is ultimately doomed to fail."
"So, the greatest risk I need to face in the end, isn't it this outer domain that is beyond my control?"
Speaking of the outer domain, the God King couldn't help but recall a small matter.
Just a while ago, his avatar in the Abyssal Demon God seemed to have been trying to get his true body to recall him and then create a new one to replace him.
Because, according to him, he had discovered an incredible secret in the Abyssal Demon God, and the divine artifact, mjölnir, and the origin of the foreign Thunder God were also related to this.
However, those discoveries were not convenient to disseminate in any way; it seemed that if the relevant information was recorded on a certain medium, something terrible would happen.
Zeus's true body speculated that the discovery was likely related to Odin, whom he had once met.
After all, whether it was mjölnir or the foreign Thunder God.
In the fragmented records of Asgard, he was the son of Odin, Thor, a powerful foreign Thunder God, and the god most likely to inherit the position of God King.
Concerning a foreign sovereign and even the heir to the throne, the God King naturally attached great importance to this matter.
However, after much deliberation, he still decided to let his avatar hold on a bit longer, rather than immediately recalling him.
It wasn't for anything else; primarily, on Mount Olympus, Zeus had tentatively created several avatars one after another.
But none of them could be like the one in the Abyssal Demon God, not only showing no change in expression when facing the Demon Motherbut even perfectly feigning a fondness that his true body couldn't detect any problems with.
With shared consciousness, the performance of these avatars was no different from his true body, not as powerful as imagined.
The God King was greatly shocked by this; he could only secretly speculate that perhaps his avatar had undergone some change to possess a willpower stronger than his true body.
This was certainly a good thing, but at the same time, it also meant that in a short period, Zeus could not only not recall his avatar but also had to let him continue to work hard to win over that powerful demon who had fallen in love.
There was no other way; if he wanted a replacement, he needed a suitable candidate.
As for the news from the avatar... he figured delaying it a bit longer wouldn't hurt.
"No matter what, I still have to go in."
"Involving secrets of the outer domain, very likely taboos that the Primordial God might know, I cannot fall behind others."
"However, to prevent any accidents, I still need to deploy some backup plans..."
With a slight thought, Zeus did not mobilize the Authority belonging to the God King, but instead extracted a trace of evil power from his body, and then extracted a portion of chaos power from the Abyssal Demon God.
Since he was going to explore the outer domain, even if it was just a tiny fragment, he had to be fully prepared.
And the most basic thing was to prepare a disguise.
"Who is Zeus?"
"I don't know, but it's not me anyway."
"Now, I am an Abyssal Demon God controlled by the Blood and Flesh Great Mother, completely unrelated to the God King of the current world."
"To investigate the origin of this foreign fragment, 'I' separated an avatar and personally ventured into this dangerous place..."
He nodded silently in his heart, took a step forward, and pressed the mixed power into the world fragment.
The space shook slightly, seemingly repelling the foreign object forcefully inserted.
But after a moment, it still entered the fragment.
No wonder, perhaps even Zeus himself didn't know.
Within this fragment of the world, there still existed some of his theoretical bloodline descendants.
Even if these descendants' bloodlines had mutated, even if they were imperceptible, existence was existence.
So when the God King's will sank into it along with his power, under this ethereal pull, the first place he descended was next to the Hebrewssettlement.
Here, there was a dying bonfire and a crude but complete idol.
Whoosh...
Whoosh...
Bang—!
Within the shattered world, at the foot of an unnamed desolate mountain.
Dragging the heavy carcass of his prey, he carefully bypassed the various traps near the settlement.
After repeatedly confirming that no one had discovered his tracks, Judasreturned to his cave dwelling.
The cave was small, but compared to the outside, it at least looked very clean.
He let out a soft sigh of relief, leaning against the rough rock wall, and slowly closed his eyes.
"Another day... I'll have to hide the prey first."
He murmured to himself, Judas silently made his plan.
Living in a world after a catastrophe, everything required caution, everything required planning.
Just like the traps near the settlement, they were used to guard against beasts, and also to provide extra meals for the trap's owner.
Most of the time, the target for this extra meal was a beast that had wandered in by mistake.
But in very rare instances, they would turn into something else.
For example, some of their own kind who were starving and fell into the traps... Every time this happened, it would cause a small carnival in the settlement.
Because a potential opponent was gone, and there was an extra share of food.
However, Judas had never done such a thing, not because he was particularly kind, but because he instinctively felt that such behavior was very likely to invite some unpredictable disaster.
Cannibalism was something that any proper religion, assembly, or organization would forbid.
Only in the most ignorant and primitive times would it be considered normal.
He asked himself, if God truly still watched over them, and the current predicament was merely a test from God, then doing such a thing at this time would be tantamount to seeking death.
Of course, Judas could also understand those who took that path.
After all, even among the Hebrews, he was once the tallest, strongest, and wisest one.
He knew how to read and write, and understood skills.
With these, even in such an environment, he was still able to preserve his Life and hunt enough food to survive, but his kinsmen were not so fortunate.
"Perhaps this is the disparity of bloodlines."
"The Hebrews all flow with noble blood, this is the glory we are born with."
"But clearly, among them, I am the most glorious."
Silently praying, Judas recounted his understanding to God.
And in a place he didn't notice, a silver crack opened.
The next moment, in the shadows of the cave, a pair of blood-red eyes lit up, quietly watching his figure.
...
In a flash, like dancing on a knife's edge.
More than ten days later, Judas, who had been living each day like a year, once again emerged from the cave.
Even though he tried to be as frugal as possible and used his own method of reducing food consumption.
But with the limited time passing, he still had to return to the wilderness.
As for the settlement... a so-called settlement was never a place of unity and cooperation.
Without the guidance of a Great Prophet, without a Divinity who could receive a response from the gods, in such a world, they would prioritize trusting themselves rather than the help of others.
The only purpose of the settlement was to deal with problems that individuals could not handle.
For example, on certain specific days, the awakened skeletons, the undead wandering across the shattered land.
Perhaps influenced by the divine power of the fallen pillar gods, they instinctively still hated the Hebrews.
So to resist them, the surviving humans had no choice but to gather together and drive away the corpses of the dead.
"...It's not here either..."
His mood was heavy; within half a day, Judas had visited several trap locations.
But perhaps it was his bad luck; he didn't find a single prey in those places.
If it were simply that, it would be fine, but at several traps, he found signs of damage and a few reverse traps.
These were definitely not for hunting beasts, but for hunting 'people', and he might even be the prey.
Taking a deep breath, some conjectures surfaced in Judas's mind.
"It's them, it's those surviving Egyptian!"
"Damn it, it was their Pharaoh and gods who were arrogant and ignorant, ultimately bringing about disaster."
"And yet, they not only show no repentance but also try to steal the Lord's favor in return?"
"Shameless!"
He fumed inwardly, those foreign lower-class people... They once regarded the Hebrews as slaves, so their descendants should atone as slaves.
If the Lord's chosen people weren't here, how could you be tolerated until today...
Harsh words, firm belief, Judas shouted in his heart.
But even he didn't notice that a trace of panic had actually risen in his heart.
The Hebrews, should they be the Lord's only favored ones?
Judas didn't know, but no matter what, he believed this was the truth of everything.